Girl with a Pearl Earring Poster

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Biography | Romance 
Rayting:   6.9/10 72.7K votes
Country: UK | Luxembourg
Language: English
Release date: 15 April 2004

A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.

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User Reviews

=G= 4 May 2004

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" tells a fictional tale about how the title painting by 17th century Dutch painter Vermeer might have come to be. Outwardly, the film is a story about the painter and a household maid who becomes the subject of the painting. Inwardly, the film is about the unspoken but palpable feelings between two people of very different stature and station which may or may not be forever cast in the crazed pigments of the masterpiece. Those who can tap into the subtle human emotional undercurrents will find this film far more satisfying than those who cannot. Regardless, all will find "Girl with a Pearl Earring" a masterpiece of filmmaking. (A-)

claudio_carvalho 27 February 2005

Fmovies: In Delfti, Holland, 1665, the poor seventeen years old Griet (Scarlett Johansson) is hired as a maid in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth), to maintain her family. The Vermeer family is supported by the powerful and wealthy commissioner Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson), and is totally dependent on the inspiration of master Johannes Vermeer to keep their high standard of living as if they were rich. When Griet arrives in the breast of Vermeer's family, she understands the relation of power among the members of the family and Van Ruijven, and meanwhile, a platonic love and attraction develop between Johannes and her, due to her feelings and perspective relative to his work. "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is a magnificent contemplative art work and a beautiful dramatic romance based on a famous painting, which has this name. It is known that the maid who worked in Vermeer's house was the model and inspiration for such a piece of arts. However, the dramatization, based on an adaptation of Tracy Chevalliers's novel, is a fiction. The reconstitution of Delftt in the Seventeenth Century is amazingly perfect, being based on paintings of that time. Watching this film, the viewer feels as if he or she were seeing paintings at an exhibition, and if he or she pauses the DVD on any scene, will have a magnificent painting on the screen of the TV. The intense performance of the cast and direction are overwhelming, highlighting the spectacular Scarlett Johansson, who is in my opinion, one of the best "new"actress in the cinema industry. Most of the feelings and sensations of the characters are transmitted through the looks and expressions of the actors and actresses. This movie had three Oscar nominations in 2003 (cinematography, art direction and costume design) and two Golden Globe nominations, and is highly recommended to any viewer who appreciates arts. I am a positive fan of movies, I always try to find the beautiful points or entertainment it can offer, instead of looking for destructive parts, like most of the professional critics do, but "Girl With a Pearl Earring" has superseded my uppermost expectations. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Moça Com Brinco de Pérola" ("Young Woman With Pearl Earring')

sannelehmann 5 August 2004

I recently read the book Girl with a Pearl Earring and I was very impressed by the way Tracy Chevalier gave life and credibility to her portrait of Griet and the Dutch painter Vermeer.

Thus, it was with high expectations that I bought the film and watched it. I was very disappointed by the film and have given some thought to the reason why it simply does not work.

Firstly, it seems to me that the film is too dependent on the book. It seems to me that viewers who have not read the book will wonder what it is all about. Since the book has so many "in-betweens", some sort of explanation about the characters and the plot seems essential. It seems to me that the director relied too much on the facial expressions of the leading actors to convey not only emotions but also crucial events in the plot.

This leads me to the second point of the criticism. I think the main problem with the film is exactly the characterisation. Colin Firth and Scarlett Johanson do not strike me as credible characters they do not literally "jump from the screen" as they did indeed jump from the page.

Firths body language is moody and closed and it comes across as if he is sulking all the way through the movie rather than enveloped and passionate about his work. Scarlett Johansen also fails to convey the intelligence and dormant potential of the maid Griet. It is not enough to just open and close your mouth 1000 times when we are given no other clues to what ís going on.

I do not think however that this is the fault of the actors - it must mean that something is missing in the direction and the script - there seems to be too little material for the actors in which to invest and bring out the characters. Too much material is only suggested and still relies upon the viewer having read the book and being able to fill in the blanks and fill in the emotions in those vacant expressions of Scarlett and Colin.

Some of the plot changes also puzzled me. Why does Vermeer pierce both her ears when she did one of them herself in the book. I thought this was a very powerful way of showing Vermeers dedication as well as his passion for the art which is uncomprising as well as a little cruel.

An adaptation has to be able to stand alone and this film certainly does not achieve this.

3/10

xristost 14 January 2005

Girl with a Pearl Earring fmovies. I have just seen "Girl with a pearl earring" and I am already willing to see it again. The feeling is very much the same as wanting another tour in a gallery of paintings of old Dutch masters, to enjoy repeatedly the beauty of light and shadow and colours. Scarlett Johansson is both very pretty and talented and the camera lovingly moves around her, searching for her beautiful eyes and puffy lustful lips, very much reminding me of Bertolucci's love for the beauty of Liv Tyler in "Stealing beauty". Colin Firth is again producing a most powerful impact by his tall dominating figure, deep beautiful voice and reserved yet sensual and passionate attitude. A strikingly good picture in the ocean of mediocre productions.

ccthemovieman-1 13 January 2006

I can't imagine a lot of people, especially anyone under 40, sitting through this extremely slow film....but I thought it was excellent. However, I am biased because I love great cinematography and stories about famous painters. Sometimes the cameras stay on subject longer than normal, affording the viewer time to really soak it up.

If you can stay awake, this film offers some of the prettiest images I've ever seen on film. Scene after scene looks like a classic painting come to life. Scarlet Johannson says very little but is fascinating to watch. For the first-time viewer, there a tension that builds throughout the film leaving wondering what bad thing is about to happen. The story is not an upbeat one, yet not depressing either.

One time, I watched this film very early in the morning, something I rarely do, and with the subtitles on. It wasn't a bad way to watch it - a quiet film in the quiet of the pre-dawn hours . The film offers another demonstration of why doesn't have to shed all their clothes to be erotic. This inspired me to read the book, and I enjoyed that, too.

Buddy-51 20 July 2004

Behind every picture there lies a story, and the film `Girl With a Pearl Earring' purports to give us the inside scoop into the making of Vermeer's classic painting of the same name. In the mid 1600's, a young, illiterate peasant girl named Griet came to live and work as a servant in the home of the promising, yet still financially struggling, Dutch master. Obsessed by her beauty, Vermeer insisted on using her as the subject for one of his works, much to the horror and chagrin of his jealous and shrewish wife. Despite the domestic havoc it caused, the collaboration between artist and subject resulted in one of the genuine masterpieces of the art world.

Visually, this film could not be more stunning. Thanks to luminous cinematography, art direction and costume design, the audience watching this film feels almost as if it has been transported into a Vermeer work. Director Peter Webber recreates every element of that world in loving detail, right down to his choice of actress Scarlett Johansson, who is a dead ringer for the model in the original portrait. Alexandre Desplat's score also captures the lyrical, haunting tenderness of the subject matter.

`Girl With a Pearl Earring' is a very fine movie in many respects, but it is ultimately unsatisfying because it cannot match in content what it achieves in style. Despite the exquisite look of the film, the characters seem strangely underdeveloped, most especially Vermeer himself, who remains frustratingly superficial throughout. Thanks mainly to his taciturn moodiness, we never get to know much of what he is thinking or feeling. The romantic moments between artist and subject are admirably restrained – and thereby all the more erotic in nature – but we do feel as if we would like to know more about him as a person. Griet is only slightly more fully developed, although, in her case, we can at least ascribe this lack of information to the restrictions placed on her by her station in life and the society of her time. Unlike Vermeer, Griet was conditioned by the world around her to be a passive observer. But Vermeer needs to be a more dynamic presence in the story.

One admires the fact that the filmmakers have remained truthful to the spirit of the enterprise, refusing to indulge in cheap melodramatics to make the story more salacious and scandalous than in truth it really was. Yet, in dramatic terms, such integrity comes with a price, for the film often has the effect of lulling rather than stimulating us, of raising our expectations then failing to fully satisfy them. Perhaps, in the case of this particular artwork, the story-behind-the-picture wasn't really all that interesting to begin with.

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